Vanessa was last seen in Ansonia, Connecticut, on November 29, 2019. She lived with her mother, Christine Holloway, on Myrtle Avenue. When Christine failed to show up for work on December 2, police conducted a welfare check and found her brutally beaten to death in the bathtub. Vanessa was missing and has never been seen again. Her father, Jose Morales, was arrested on an unrelated firearms charge the next day. By mid-December, he was named a suspect in Christine’s murder, and in February 2020, he was charged with murder and evidence tampering. Surveillance footage showed Jose’s car near a donation bin in Derby, Connecticut, a day before Christine’s body was found. Workers later discovered bloodstained items inside, including a puzzle, a men’s shirt, and a children’s book. DNA testing confirmed the blood was Christine’s. Several of Vanessa’s belongings remain missing, including a pink, purple, green, and blue teething keyring, a white blanket with multicolored polka dots, a heather-gray Eddie Bauer First Adventure backpack-style diaper bag, and a black Graco car seat.